The invention is directed to inflatable bags employed for individual safety, and particulary to inflatable garments which can be individually worn by vehicle occupants or otherwise worn in conditions which warrant such personal protection.
Inflatable buoyant garments are well known in the boating art. An example of such a jacket can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,266,070 issued to inventor M. H. O'Link on Aug. 16, 1966. Other similar flotation vests have used for years. These floatation vests are generally inflated by two convenient methods, namely by the person wearing the vest to inflate the bags by means of blowing air from the mouth into the vest and by the use of pressured cylinders of CO.sub.2 or the like. However, in all instances the vests are inflated on demand by the user as required. None of the prior art vests are inflated automatically or by means of deceleration sensing.
Buoyant vests are taught by the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,266,070; 3,948,541; 4,380,441 and Re. 32,023.
The air bag, also sometimes known as the Safety Air Cushion (SAC), is a device invented and designed in the United States as an alternative for a seat belt for protection of passengers in a vehicle road accident.
The air bag is a strong inflatable neoprene coated woven Nylon bag. When not in use it if deflated, rolled and stored beneath the vehicle's instrument panel. An air distribution system is linked to a cylinder of compressed air with a sensing device to determine when the car is involved in an accident.
The sensing device is a single accelerometer which is pre-set to open a valve and release the compressed air when a violent deceleration takes place.
Examples of air bags and air bag inflation can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,430,979; 4,178,016 and 4,243,248.
There are no prior patents that combine a air bag system in a garment to be worn by a person riding as a passenger in a vehicle or encountering possible danger that would require the use of such a device. The air bag inflation systems which are now available use only deceleration devices that are attached to the vehicle. There are no sensing devices worn by the passengers of the vehicle.
The present invention fills a large and critical gap in the vehicle safety art by providing a garment that can be worn by a passenger in a vehicle and a combined vehicle and passenger sensing system for inflating the garment in the event that the vehicle and the passenger encounter sufficient deceleration.
An invention of this type should find wide acceptance in the vehicle passenger safety art.